Champions of the Flyway!

Thursday, December 24, 2015

This young, bolshy Whooper Swan has recently taken up residence on Scarborough Mere and, although it was dark, damp and dreary, after our successful jaunt to the harbour we thought we'd drop by on the way home anyway. Again, very glad we did, because of the 15 or so swans present (the rest all Mutes as you'd expect), the Whooper turned out to be the least fazed and most curious of them all, even seeing off its common cousins several times with a well-placed arse-bite or two. Respect.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

A jaunt up the road to Scarborough with the old man saw us arriving at a dark, chilly harbour battered by a strong westerly and heavy showers, and thus expectations of any meaningful camera action were set at virtually zero. But, as we drove onto the central pier, a very smart adult Red-throated Diver popped up, wonderfully close and distracted by its singled-minded preening, and so we started firing (at about ISO 7 million) for the hell of it. Really glad we did too, because despite the dreadful light and conditions (and hence grainy images), the bird was such a beautiful and co-operative subject, it turned out to be well worth it.

Somewhat upstaged but good to see anyway were three Black-necked Grebes, a popular presence in the harbour for some weeks now.

Wednesday, December 16, 2015

A dark, drizzly December weekday here in Filey usually means a blissfully near-deserted bay and Brigg, happily the case yesterday morning when I set out into the murk for a wander to the end and back. While avian expectations are naturally quite low key at this time of year (unless severe weather intervenes), the bay in winter can occasionally rock you back on your heels with a glittering prize, and for some reason - which I don't plan on over-thinking - December always provides for me. Stumbling upon a Brunnich's Guillemot in the same month two years ago and a White-billed Diver in December last year was pretty much as good as it gets, but surely the run was due to end...

Well, apparently not. Typically unremarkable circumstances, difficult viewing conditions (dark, misty, a moderate swell), and very few birds in the bay hardly painted a promising picture, and a few Red-throated Divers, auks, Great Crested Grebes, and a Great Northern Diver briefly in the bay corner were all pretty standard fare. Ducks, meanwhile - flocks of which can offer hope of a more unusual member within their ranks - were somewhat feebly represented by a single Goldeneye patrolling the southern flank of the Brigg, which soon thought better of it, flew out of the bay and headed north.

Walking back along the shoreline towards the bay corner and scanning the choppy surface again on auto-pilot, a lone, dark scoter-shaped seaduck briefly materialised a few hundred metres out (see the initial view above, through a 400ml lens - it didn't get any closer). Hmmm. Giving fairly lousy views and spending much of its time underwater, it nevertheless looked instantly promising; even with effectively just a (fairly distant) silhouette to go on, the alarm bells began to ring. But, echoing similar situations over the last few years (not least the aforementioned Arctic auk), it seemed faintly ridiculous for the one bird present, appearing out of nowhere as if by magic, to just so happen to be a much coveted rare quarry.

Clearly it's time to stop thinking that way, because - after a few more minutes joining up the dots - that's exactly what had happened once again. The only dark splodge in the whole of the northern bay was indeed a fine immature male Surf Scoter, born in North America just a few months ago, and yet another wonderful reward provided by the murky waters just a few minutes from my front door.

(Above - Great Northern & Red-throated Divers, also photographed in the murk at 4000 ISO....)

Sunday, December 6, 2015

Another day, another shameless plug - this one for an article of mine just published by Birdguides about the seabird science and studies taking place within the proposed Flamborough & Filey Cliffs SPA. It's free to access and can be read here:

Wednesday, November 25, 2015

These two juvenile Great Northern Divers were in the bay by the sea-watching hide at the weekend during the northerly gales (and were part of a record-breaking 11+ I had on the day), and behaved in a way I've never seen or heard of before; maybe it's not so rare, and the photos are pretty crappy in the poor conditions, but worth posting as an aside.

The two birds were a considerable distance apart and began calling to each other - a high-pitched, eerie moan - before swimming directly towards each other, still calling frequently. They then circled each other closely a couple of times, and began bill touching - apparently non-aggressively - for a good ten seconds or more, which included gently gripping each other's bills, before circling each other closely again and swimming off side by side.

About Me

Lucky enough to spend plenty of my time enjoying birds and wildlife as my bread and butter and drug of choice, I've an east coast Bird Observatory on my doorstep here in Filey and a second just down the road at Flamborough. I'm a field ornithologist, nature writer, speaker and guide, a role juggler here at the Obs and a musician / songwriter with my band Morning Bride.